[Gutenberg 63044] • A Girl of the Plains Country

'A Girl of the Plains Country' is one of Alice MacGowan's finest works. It is the story of a family who arrives by stagecoach to small town Mesquite. They have traveled all the way from New York - a little girl with dark curls, a woman wearing silk stockings and heels, and a man in a flannel shirt and jeans, carrying his young baby. They are the Van Brunt family. It is a sixty-mile trip to the Three Sorrows Ranch, and during that time, Hank Pearsall gets a chance to be acquainted with the family, especially young Hilda Van Brunt. She decides to call him 'Uncle Hank'. The family try to fit into their new surroundings on the plains, as they fix up beds, and cook steaks on the fire, and eat canned food. It is a much different experience for the family, than living in Denver, or New York. It is a place filled with ponies and horses, ranchers, and all sorts of fantastic things that Hilda had never experienced before. She quickly settles into her new life, eager to learn what she can about life on the ranch, as well as playing with her dolls on the sprawling plains. Alice MacGowan (1858-1947), was an American novelist who lived in Tennessee, and California. She co-authored more than thirty novels, a hundred short stories, and poetry, with her sister, Grace. She spent time at Upton Sinclair's Helicon Home Colony, before it burned down. She also spent time in the company of writers such as Jack London, Sinclair Lewis, and others while living at an artist's commune in Carmel-by-the-sea.